The leaders of Door County's parks system appear to be leaving stock-car racing in the rear-view and turning toward fresh ideas for using the 2,671-seat grandstand at the fairgrounds in Sturgeon Bay.

The Door County Airport & Parks Committee Wednesday told parks director Erik Aleson to draw up a list of suggestions for the future of Thunderhill Raceway, located within John Miles County Park east of North 14th Avenue. The agenda had called for "brainstorming" thoughts on that topic, but apparently that discussion will await the committee's August meeting after the members see what Aleson comes up with.

The roofed, concrete grandstand, finished in 1999 for $1.2 million, and the one-third mile clay oval have been silent this summer after the county and former race promoter Bryan "Woody" Wodack could not reach terms on a new contract or agreeable rental fee. The new grandstand went in five years after racing's rebirth at the fairgrounds after a 10-year absence, replacing creaky wooden bleachers that had served fans at the former Door County Speedway.

Committee chairman Dan Austad, both at the meeting and in a later interview, wouldn't sign the death certificate for amateur dirt-track racing in Sturgeon Bay. But in the next breath he indicated the sport is a longshot to return, given the decline of racing attendance throughout the region in recent years and the competitive drawbacks of a track like Thunderhill that is a long-distance commute for many out-of-town drivers and spectators.

Austad told the Advocate that when he was growing up in the 1940s and '50s, the property where the track now lies hosted harness racing and youth football. Noting that "times change" along with tastes, harness racing lost its popularity and the football games moved to better facilities throughout the city.

"It's not a revolution, it's an evolution," Austad told the committee about changing the grandstand uses.

"I'm 75 years old, and in my lifetime (a pastime) like harness racing just sort of disappeared (on the local scene)," Austad said. "Is stock-car racing headed the same way? I think it's dying a slow death, but it might not be dead yet."

The Thunderhill grounds will roar back to life briefly during the Door County Fair Aug. 4 to 7. The fair's attractions include tractor pulls Thursday and Friday evening, flat-track motorcycle racing Saturday night, and a demolition derby Sunday afternoon. But those are the only motorsports presently on the docket for Thunderhill this summer.

"People would tell me all the money racing (fans) bring into the county," Austad said. "But then you talk to people involved with soccer, if you put in more soccer fields there, you could bring in more tournaments that bring in thousands of people. You have enough room there (at the racetrack) to put in maybe two soccer fields, a bandstand and two Little League fields."

However, Austad said he's not putting any firm plans on the table himself, instead waiting to see what the taxpaying public and Aleson think are intriguing and do-able.

The county's five-year parks plan for 2011-15 knew that soccer teams now using three fields on the north end of the fairgrounds needed room to grow, but had no good alternatives at that time.

"The program could use up to six fields to allow proper rejuvenation and rotation of the playing surface," according to the plan. "This cannot be accomplished within the present boundaries of the park."

The rapid decline of racing, and subsequent freeing up of space, was not foreseen at that time.

But now that those developments have come to pass, the Door County Soccer Association is interested in talking about possible expansion into the track area. The DCSA runs a summer soccer program for upward of 500 youths on property between Alabama Street and North 15th Place — using an entrance that once led to Thunderhill's pits.

"To date, our board hasn't talked about it, because our season's going right now and we all coach teams and help out at the fields," said John Safranski, the club's vice president. "But I've certainly heard that rumor and it's certainly interesting.

"The need is that, especially at the younger ages, we have 75 kids per (age) division and we can't get in all the matches we would like to. We would definitely like to expand."

Safranski said he works at NAPA Auto Parts/Door County Cooperative with youth football coach Bryan Beachler, to whom he pitched the idea of a combined football-soccer field. Now the opportunity might be there to do more than just dream.

Austad said the 4-H Horse & Pony Project that uses the fairgrounds' horse barn and outdoor ring is growing in popularity, too. But the program's Wendy Woldt said her group is more than happy with a recent public-private rebuild of the arena that satisfies the young horseback riders' space needs.

"What's got to be established first is whether racing is done," Austad added. "Is the life of stock-car racing here, flat-track racing, done?"

But asked under what circumstances stock cars might make a comeback, Austad said a promoter would need to come forward with a plan that makes dollars and sense. That appears doubtful because when the county put out "requests for proposals" this spring — a bugle call soliciting people interested in running the racing programs — there was not a single nibble.

Under Wodack's leadership, he, like any other person in the public eye, heard grumbling that he was doing the job all wrong, Austad said.

"You would hear the usual comments that Woody wasn't doing anything right, he should be doing this, he should be doing that," Austad said. "But where were all those people who thought they could do a better job (when the county cast a net)? The county isn't in the stock-car business as far as taking that on ourselves. No more than (personally running) soccer or baseball or football or any of these sports."

For his part, former promoter Wodack told the county Wednesday: "I'm done, but I don't want to see racing done." Wodack had asked for a weekly track rental fee of $600 for 2016 — half of what he paid last year and an amount he said would allow him to break even. From 2010 to '14, average weekly car entries at Thunderhill dropped from 109 to just 49 and fan attendance plummeted dramatically, too from about 600 to 300 per week.

Is Wodack being held to a higher standard of helping to raise as much revenue as possible for the county? The county, after all, gets no guaranteed income from parks like Cave Point and subsidizes a money-losing annual fair.

"The difference is a place like Cave Point brings in thousands and thousands of people who spend money (elsewhere)," Austad said. "The fair might be on a downward march, too, like a lot of them, but it is a century-old institution for the youth."

Wodack has estimated that in his 13 years of operating Thunderhill, he paid about $200,000 in rental fees while footing the cost for racing insurance and lighting. The county paid for replacing the clay every one or two years — a now-unused fund that Austad said contains $8,000 — and routine maintenance of the grounds.

Austad said he doesn't believe the county is bleeding any money with the grandstand sitting empty. He said property insurance for the track falls under the general fairgrounds coverage, the electricity isn't being used and general track cleanup would be done races or no races — and would naturally be less costly during the latter.

Meanwhile, the only activity at Thunderhill this month will be a final tidying-up by Wodack of old tires and equipment that are his responsibility. On Wednesday, he was given a 10-business day extension of a July 12 deadline to clear out his stuff in time for the fair.

And after the fair ends it run and the track/grandstand go dark again, Austad fully understands that Thunderhill and its state-of-the-art lighting can't become the county's white elephant down the road as it ages.

"It's too big a property and too nice a property to be used for just one or two programs a year," Austad said. "We're going to try to put it to good use, and that goes for the entire fairgrounds."